Brendan Monroe Observations of Light and Matter

Dates: March 2, 2012 to March 25, 2012
Location: COOPER COLE (1161 Dundas St. W, Toronto, Ontario)

www.coopercolegallery.com Brendan Monroe Observations of Light & Matter March 2, 2012 – March 25, 2012 Opening reception / Friday March 2, 2012 / 6 – 10pm Artist talk / Saturday March 3, 2012 / 3 – 4pm COOPER COLE is pleased to welcome American artist Brendan Monroe for his first solo exhibition in Toronto. Through a series of paintings and sculptures, Monroe tells a story of a world filled with unique personalities and imaginary organisms. Monroe cultivates a taste for scientific challenges, relationships to math, the properties in physics, and the surreal. His dream-like scenes overflow with cellular shapes, creating a landscape set on a universal level. Mbius strips and algorithms integrate with human figures to create an environment that allows the mind to explore a journey of solitude. Monroe’s atmospheric imagery achieves a pause in both time and space; a moment that can be read as either the creation of new being or as the passing in to a serene immortality. "Observations of Light and Matter is a way for me to reinterpret the facets of current and past scientific frontiers. The work is sometimes directly derived from scientific observations and at other times loosely inspired by them. My purpose is to ask the questions that lead to an understanding of physics in nature all around us. I often dont completely understand the entirety of every concept, but Im searching for a way to interpret their possibilities and how they might have an impact on myself and others. My interest is not in explaining or figuring out, but more in the interpretation and injection of perspective of these subjects." Brendan Monroe was born and raised in Southern California with a BFA honours from the Art Centre College of Design. He has exhibited his art internationally at galleries such as Richard Heller in Los Angeles and Galerie LJ in Paris. His work has been featured in publications such as The New York Times and New American Paintings. Monroe currently lives and works in Oakland, California